Billions of dollars in goods and shipments are stuck in place as local ports deal with labor union issues. Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) recently announced that the Port of Seattle is entirely shut down due labor disruption. The west coast is front and center as ports shut down due to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). They have not sent workers to the container terminals.
This area is important due to the two big ports. The Port of Seattle and The Port of Tacoma make up the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA). The goods going in and out are massive. The Port of Seattle is one of the top maritime ports in North America with 40% of the State of Washington’s jobs tied to trade. This makes the issue about more than goods getting from AtoB.
This week has been bad for the movement of products. The total value of exports in 2022 was $5.66 billion. The shutdowns this year so far is estimated at over $5.2 billion of trade now floating off the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland. The goods include wheat (valued at $756.8 million), potatoes, (valued at $712.4 million), apples (valued at $2.185 billion), milk, ($1.209 billion), cattle (valued at $801.5 million), and hay (valued at $601.7 million).
This coubtry rely on the local area for it refrigerated goods shipped via reefer containers. Those items include dairy, apple, french fries, meat, and fish. NWSA also get imported automobiles such as Kia and Hyundai which use this port. These imports were up 6.5% in 2022 with a whopping 172,979 units delivered.
The last several years, the talk was about a hold up in the supply chain due to war between Russia and the Ukraine. The pandemic was also a factor. Now top trading partners China, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and India are now having to wait while the unions and ports work out their differences.
